New updates after a long break. I ended up doing 3 more trackdays, two at Shenandoah and one at Summit Point Main.
Of course, these are all just my thoughts on my journey of self-discovery.
I definitely welcome thoughts of the experienced.
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Shenny with N2
Vehicle: Zipvan - definitely easier to load than an F150.
This was a super cold day. It was at freezing in the morning, and the turn out was really low. The afternoon got a lot better and got into the 50s. Grip was interesting in the morning, as it was the first time I've ever had the rear of the 300 step out while on the gas at corner exit.
I'm not even sure what to do with this day, to be honest. Talking to different coaches, I got differing advice on line selection. I did some lead/follow, adjusting some of my lines to try straightening out some sections and double apexing certain corners. Some of it seemed to work better. However, I then got a video review by a coach saying my lines were bad.
I'm honestly not even sure what to do with this day. I'm just dropping the changes, and staying with single apexing things until I get faster.
Overall, it was a fine day to get back to Shenny. I was not a fan of the course layout, with the range straight and shortcut after the bridge. I will probably stick with MXC or TPM for Shenandoah.
Lessons learned: Unknown.
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Shenny with MXC
Holy hell were there a lot of crashes. I think the majority of sessions ended due to red flags.
This day was dedicated to body positioning. Since the talks on body positioning at VIR, I have tried to focus on pre-positioning and getting off the bike more.
I was able to two sessions in with Bruce. He was great and was making exaggerated movements to tell me to get lower on the tank. Of course, I thought I was lower than I actually was.
I only ran the cam on the tail, so there's no good footage.
Laptime: 2:14 with traffic. Compared to my first time on Shenny, this is a 4 second drop in laptime.
Lesson learned: Get low on the tank. Even if you think you're low, you're probably not.
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Summit Main with MXC
First time at Main
I did not think I would enjoy Main as much as I did. I was expecting to just get blown by over and over again by the bigger bikes without much cornering time. I actually really liked turns 1, 3, and 10. I was mentally psyching myself out with corner entry speed, and slowing down much more than I should have, but I felt like I slowly worked on it session by session.
I found myself still having the same problem of being too upright. I was also maybe stiff arming my inside arm a bit, so I was not dropping my upper body as much as I could have. This will be something to work on. At least now, I can consistently get my outside forearm on the tank.
Also, I did not notice it nearly as much until reviewing the video, but I am making a lot of mid-corner adjustments. This is definitely something I will have to focus on to avoid doing.
Fun fact: I had a stuck throttle in one session. It is nerveracking to downshift two gears, let go of the clutch, and not slow down relative to the bike in front. I pulled the bar side throttle housing apart, and it seemed okay. Afterwards at home, I found that the lower throttle body adjustments were completely loose. Not sure when this happened or how. But it seems like everything is back in spec.
Laptime: 1:48. I was definitely braking way earlier for turn 1 than necessary. I improved this to the third brake marker in a later session, but I did not get clean track to put a lap together.
Lesson learned: Still need to get lower on the tank. I need to relax the inside arm more to let it bend more, and let more of the outside arm rest on the tank in order to get the upper body lower.
Link to original page on YouTube.
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The next day will be NYST on July 4th weekend with EvolveGT.
Focus plan:
Get my upper body lower by relaxing my inside arm more and getting more of my outside arm to rest on the tank.
Stop the mid corner adjustments
Misc. Thoughts
I'm also at about 1500(?) (installed by previous owner) on the DR2s. They've been great so far. But I have a pair of S20evos that will get put on at some point.